Fund Balances Beginning 2020-2021 Academic Year
Eastman Fund - $ 63,416.00
Cummings Fund - $ 5,672.00
Lamont Fund - $ 125,427.00
Lurcy Fund - $ 32,741.00
Eastman Fund - $ 63,416.00
Cummings Fund - $ 5,672.00
Lamont Fund - $ 125,427.00
Lurcy Fund - $ 32,741.00
April 30, 2010 - From David Wills
About the Faculty Leclure Committee:
1. In understanding the work of the Faculty Lecture Committee, it is first of all necessary to understand that the Committee has at its disposal no generic lecture funds- i.e., funds that can be used to support any worthwhile lecture or other event. The Committee administers four funds: The Lucius Root Eastman 1895 Fund; the Corliss Lamont Lectureship for a Peaceful World: the Georges Lurcy Lecture Series at Amherst; and the Samuel B. Cummings Lecture Fund. Each of these has a specified purpose and clear restrictions. The Eastman Fund supports classroom or closely course-related events. The Lurcy Fund is limited to events involving foreign speakers or foreign cultures. The Lamont Fund (the largest) has to do with "the cause of peace in the world." The Cummings Fund (the smallest) supports lectures in the "academic fields of Anthropology, Archaeology, Psychology, and/or Sociology. If the lecture committee receives a proposal that fits none of these funds, it has no choice but to reject it. 1f the Georges Lurcy Lecture Series were eliminated, the kind of events it now supports could not routinely be assigned to other funds. Some course-related events could in principle be shifted to Eastman, but that would in practice be difficult if not impossible, given the current level of spending from the Eastman Fund. The Cummings Fund is both too limited and too small to be of much relevance. The stipulations of the Lamont Fund allow us to interpret world peace " flexibly" - but there are nonetheless limits. If the Georges Lurcy Lectureship were withdrawn, the Committee would be obliged to turn down most of the requests it now covers from Lurcy Funds.
2. The broader environment in which the Faculty Lecture Committee works includes the academic departments and the administration, both of which have funds that support lectures and other events. (a) Academic departments have widely disparate resources available for this purpose. A few departments have very handsome endowed funds. Many departments have only a few hundred dollars as a line item in their regular budgets. Departments with deep pockets typically do not rely on the Faculty Lecture Committee to support events. Those with limited resources do. So far as I am aware, the European language depar tments- heavy users of both the Eastman Fund and the Lurcy Lecture Series- generally have few resources of their own. They would be hit hardest by the elimination of Lurcy funds. (b) The Dean and the President also have funds to support lectures and other events. These are administered entirely separately from either the Faculty Lecture Committee or the academic departments. I am not aware timt the foci of their spending substantially coincide with what is now supported by the Georges Lurcy Lecture Series.
3. Recent cutbacks have affected the availability of all the resources listed under 2 above. In the budget cutting required of all academic departments, lecture funds have in some instances been a casualty. Departments with endowed funds may draw upon them to cover items cut from the regular budget, reducing what would otherwise be available for lectures. The Dean's office has reduced support for some academic events. The President's office has reassigned some lecture funds to support visiting faculty, to make up for the eliminating of visiting faculty positions from the regular budget. The total pool of funds at the College to support lectures has shrunk.
4. In the last two years, the number of requests to the Faculty Lecture Committee has jumped from 68 to 91 to l 00. Various things may account for this increase, but the limited funding available elsewhere is clearly one of them. This year, for example, we had a request for $3500 to support a First Year Seminar event previously funded by the Dean of Faculty. When we have tried to stretch our funds (especially Eastman) by asking applicants ifthey could cover part of an event with funds from their own department, we have more than once been told: "we don't have anything." Or, as one member ofthe well-heeled English Department, who was on sabbatical last year told us in pleading for money for a major Shakespeare event: "after a year's leave out ofthe country, I am quite alarmed at our straitened circumstances, and how much harder it is to do things that were almost automatic two years ago."
5. Since requests come in one-by-one over the year as faculty members submit them, it is hard at any given point along the way to project what the total will be by the end of the year. (Flow pattems vary substantially from year to year, so one can't draw firm inferences from past pattems.) Given the tightening of funds elsewhere, I have been concerned all year about the possibility that increased demand would eventually overtax some of the Faculty Lecture Committee's funds- specifically Eastman and Lurcy. Accordingly, I and my colleagues have tried very hard to trim budgets and redirect some proposals to those few comers of the campus where other funds might still be available. For example, as a member of the Religion Department, I was aware that the Hamilton Fund, administered by that department, is available to support a range of Asian Studies events, and have managed to redirect three proposals there. I also know of cases where faculty members have had to draw on funds they had planned to use for another purpose in order to make up the difference between what they needed for some event and what we could give them or help them find elsewhere. As a result we have managed to help 100 events happen without bankrupting the Lecture Committee. But it hasn't always been easy. And we couldn't have done it without the Georges Lurcy Lecture Series.
David W. Wills,
Chair of the Faculty Lecture Committee
Guidelines for 2008-2009 - Jessica Reyes, Chair
THE FUNDS:
- Eastman: This is for lectures associated with a class. Most requests are for Eastman.
- Lamont: Has a lot of money, and somehow must be related to peace, though that is broadly interpreted.
- Lurcy: for foreign lecturers or topics. We try to use it for something substantial, since we need to send them an annual report about what the funds were used for.
- Cummings: For certain departments
- Lazerowitz: Just in January, for a lecture by an Assistant or Associate Prof.
(The 1st three are the ones we will use regularly.)
BUDGETING GUIDELINES:
- Honoraria: usually $300-$500, though for someone particularly distinguished we might go as high as $1000
- Travel: fund reasonable plane tickets
- Lodging: a night or two, usually around $200 per night (which includes a breakfast at the Lord Jeff only). (updated 2015-2016)
- Entertainment: usually a meal or reception, for between $100 to $300. (updated 2015-2016)
(Entertainment is where people often ask for too much money, and we need to tell them no. We don't fund lavish dinners/receptions. These funds were designed for the academic purpose not for lavish entertainment. etc.,)
New submits yet to be finalized.
This contains discussions of requests we've resolved.